Saturday, February 27, 2010

About me

Riding in Carolina North Forest

I first learned to unicycle as a teenager on my brother’s 20” schwinn. I never got very good at it although I do remember unicycling around my neighborhood to collect my newspaper customers’ weekly payments. I always seemed to get better tips ($$) from my customers when I unicycled to their doors, so that kept me motivated for a couple of years. That is, until I learned to drive.

Fast forward to my 34th year of life. I hadn’t been on or even thought about a unicycle in over 18 years. I was out with our 9 year old son looking to buy a used bike that was advertised on Craigs List. The man who was selling the bike had a shed full of old bikes he had fixed up. And there hanging on the wall of the shed was a 20” vintage schwinn unicycle exactly like the one I had learned on.

On the way back home I found myself fantasizing about riding the unicycle again – I could ride it on the university campus where I work; I could impress our kids and their friends; I could unicycle to keep in shape and get rid of the 30-something love handles that were beginning to emerge on my sides.

Stair hopping at UNC

I had been bitten by the unicycle bug and there was only one remedy. I couldn’t get that unicycle out of my mind. I emailed the owner and offered to buy the old schwinn. No reply. I emailed him again a week later. No reply. Finally, in near desperation I called him to see if he would sell it and much to my dismay he said that the unicycle was not for sale – he was waiting to give it to his grandson.

So I quickly did some comparison shopping on the internet and settled on buying a new Torker LX 24” unicycle from NiagaraCycle.com. Since then I have purchased 2 more unicycles - a Nimbus 26er and KH24.

If you’re wondering what I do when I’m not on one wheel or playing with my family, you can check out my LinkedIn page.